ESPN New York has launched as of Midnight Friday morning and I have to say I am impressed thus far. I have to admit that I have been way down on watching ESPN since they have decided to use the Mets as a punching bag overthe past few seasons. However, this website may draw me back to ESPN’s MLB coverage. I do sometimes get sick of hearing Mitch Williams talk about the Phillies on MLBN, so you never know, maybe a switch to ESPN is in the cards. I don’t know if I can watch the actually channel again but I definitely think this site will be something I look at everyday.

ESPN was very smart in acquiring veteran New York writers instead of hiring newbies that do not know what they are talking about. All New York teams are covered obviously but I will focus on just their Mets section. Writing in the Mets section are Adam Rubin, formerly of the Daily News, Andrew Marchand, formerly of the Post and Rich Coutinho, who has been covering the Mets since 1984 with ABC, WFAN and ESPN. I like each of these guys and will be actively on the site. Adam already has up a preview of the club and a preview of the Marlins series. I hope that these guys can be regulars on TV giving us astute NY baseball knowledge on the tube.

I am very excited we live in such an age where site like Metsblog.com and this ESPN NY site almost take us inside the locker room. These sites give us first hand information just as it happens, we get all the information to help us become one of the smartest fan bases in all of sports so I thank all of you writers and bloggers out there for helping me learn more and more about my favorite pastime and team.

For all you Frenchie fans out there, I recently came across Jeff’s official website @ www.jefffrancoeur.com. I am interested to see if Jeff will update his blog throughout the season, I read his passage about returning to Atlanta and it was great to hear him talking about missing home, seeing his wife, visiting with ex players etc. This would be a great look for us inside the locker room and to see who socializes with who etc. Hopefully, Jeff will have sometime this season to keep that blog updated. This site looks great and is a great way for the Met fan to get to know Jeff better. Definitely worth the look for any Met fan and we can only believe good things are in store for good old #12 this season.

If your like me and your tethered to your iPhone all the time then this article by Mashable should be interesting for you. It’s a list of the top must-have apps for baseball fans. Personally I already had the “MLB At Bat” on my iPhone, but only the free “Lite” version as I am just not sure how much I will need audio. And since I don’t get the MLB.tv package I don’t see the real need to upgrade yet. That may change as the season progresses.

I did break down and buy the iScore app. It was for $10 bucks which is a lot for an App but I loved to score games when i was a kid so I figured even if I only do it for a few games over the year it will still be worth it. Like they said to even just go and buy a scorebook and a pencil your gonna plunk down at least $5 anyways, probably more.

Marty Noble over at Mets.com has posted a 2000′s All-Decade team as voted on by some of the Mets higher-ups, which is a great read. For an in-depth look at each of these guys please check out this link: All-Decade Team.

I was reading The Real Dirty Mets Blog when I stumbled across this graphic. It shows very plainly how the two players have faired this spring training. The numbers do not lie. And when you factor in on top of that that Davis has a “smooth” glove at first and Murphy, well, Murphy is a work in progress, it’s really hard to say that Davis should have won the job in a perfect world.

Alas the Mets are anything but perfect and as I have written about before Murphy will be starting at first on opening day. The article even goes on to say that most likely Ike Davis will be on the next set of demotions from spring training camp citing the fact that he has only had 1 official at-bat since March 10.

Ted Burg from over at TedQuarters.net writes a good article on why people need to be careful when comparing Jenrry Mejia with other pitchers from the past. People like to bring up names of pitchers that had success as young as Mejia. They also like to talk about guys who started in the bullpen and then were able to make the transition back to the starting rotation.

And heck, for all I know, Jenrry Mejia can dominate out of the Mets’ bullpen this year while at the same time perfecting that secondary arsenal, then transition smoothly into the rotation next year to become a frontline starter and serve as a comp for all sorts of future young pitchers to come.

But as far as I’m concerned, it’s hard enough for a prospect to turn into a frontline starter without obstacles to his development, and the Mets would be best served making Mejia’s path to becoming a big-league frontline starter as smooth and effortless as possible.

It could be a pivotal moment for Mejia whenever the Mets make their decision on what to do with him. It’s my opinion that all pitchers should be starting pitchers, until proven otherwise. But as the debate rages on I can see a lot of merit on how Mejia, at 20, starting in the bullpen could be a good thing for his progression.

It’s merits back and forth under consideration, I think it’s going to boil down to can this guy help the club right now? With both the Manger and the GM sitting in the fire with their jobs on the line, do we really expect them to make a decision for the long term betterment of the club?

Spring training is a great time of year for a baseball fan. Hope springs eternal. Your team can be anything you can dream up. One of the best parts of spring training is taking a look at your teams future. You get to see the next generation out on the field wearing the blue and orange.

For the Mets the talk of this spring training has been almost totally focused on the promise of both Ike Davis and Jenrry Mejia. It’s unilaterally accepted that both have bright futures, the question is whether that future is now or not.

Mike Vaccaro of the NY Post writes a great article about how these two phenoms could turn out to be “amazin” finds.

It’s what happens once everyone arrives that makes the spring fun. It’s watching Ike Davis blast baseballs toward spots at Tradition Field that only a select few sluggers have ever reached before.

Brian Costa of the Star-Ledger and NJ.com wrote a great article today giving us a look into the background of the Mets latest Spring Training phenom. All the talk this spring has been about Jenrry Mejia’s bright future, but most of us know nothing about this kid. I just realized I didn’t even know how to accurately spell his name.

It’s a cool story about a kid who saw big money and big potential chasing his version of the American Dream and worked hard to chase it. Now at 20 years old he is the Mets top pitching prospect.

So I had a bit of a meltdown yesterday that’s for sure. I just can’t take it anymore. It’s one thing after another with this team and it’s beaten me down.

Today I found this article and it was uplifting to me and made me realize that no matter what the lineup might look like, opening day is coming, and if you love baseball that’s an awesome thing no matter what.

So I need to stop harping on the doom and gloom, have realistic expectations, and enjoy a good baseball game.

With spring training now in full swing it’s good to take a subjective look back at the moves that the Mets made, and even those that they didn’t make. The guys over at MLB Trade Rumors have done just that by reviewing the Mets offseason.

The end up grading the Mets much like we do, right in the mix in the NL East, with a lot of question marks and needing a lot of things to go correctly.